Communicating Effectively with PowerPoint workshop

At the writing center, we know that much of writing today happens digitally.  This presentation will focus on how to communicate effectively with words, images, sounds, and other media in Microsoft PowerPoint, and show your students how to effectively communicate through a digital slideshow.

Introduction:

  • We'll start off with a quick introduction to the writing center and what we can do for you.

Critiquing Visuals as Rhetorical Tools:

  • We’ll compare different visuals of the same subject matter, focusing on how they are different, what they each communicate about their subject, and what emotions, attitudes, and ideas they elicit from viewers.
  • Next, we look at different aesthetic considerations you can take into account when designing your slides, and how they should relate to your audience and purpose.
    • Background color
    • Gradients
    • Different media
    • Now we’ll talk about different animation schemes and text/visual considerations and how they affect the message of your presentation.

MAPS

  • Our previous points will have dealt much with the context in which you will be giving your presentation. 
  • MAPS is a way to look at this context, which is very important to writing and communication in general, and something we focus on heavily at the writing center. 
    • Mode
    • Audience
    • Purpose
    • Situation
  • Next, we’ll discuss whether various slides meet their MAPS requirements.

CRAP

  • CRAP deals with the visual design of your slideshow, and closely connects with the context of MAPS. 
    • Contrast
    • Repetition
    • Alignment
    • Proximity
  • We’ll talk about how the visual elements of the slides can contribute to or hinder your communication process.
  • Then, we’ll design a slide together using these principles as our guide.

Final touchups

  • Lastly, we’ll focus on different tips and tricks to getting your presentation just the way you want it, and to help you get what you want across to your audience.
  • PowerPoint, rather than being a constraining way to present information, offers you a lot of freedom to communicate if you know how to use it.